It’s time to do a little something other than knitting. Twice a week I teach needlepoint at the LNS. The students have been with me between 5 and 8 years. It's a blast! We take a painted canvas and add stitches and threads to make it ‘come to life’. Making it look fresh and beautiful without getting carried away and making it look too ‘samplerish’ is the art, an art that is very enjoyable, challenging and rewarding for me.
Every October the students ask for a special Christmas class and this year we are going to stitch this cute “Flying Santa” (yes, the picture is funky, canvas is hard to photograph in its raw form). In the Christmas bins under the ‘stash’ (in the July 27th post) there are a dozen or so needlepointed Santa’s which will come out at Thanksgiving. You’ll get to see some of the class pieces we’ve done at that time. It’s fun to find the perfect stitch and thread for each section of a design. This Santa will be a 'good stitch' and you'll get to watch him change into a finished picture. Having no idea what will happen until I begin it will be interesting for ME to see what flows forth.
A friend just returned from a trip to Dearborn Michigan. Look at the cute bag she brought back for me. It’s the perfect size for socks and she even had a note inside to say so. She knows what I like (and do). She was at an embroidery class with Shay Pendray, one of my most favorite people on the planet. It’s a class we used to travel together to do but things have changed for me and I’ve ‘fallen’ away. 
The bag is full of my Koigu. Speaking of Koigu, you must rush over the Teresa’s and enter her contest! And speaking of contests, don’t forget the one for this Lorna’s sport weight Tuscany. (See yesterday’s post.) And Norma’s contest is nearing its end so go try your hand there, too. See, you could be winning all over the place!
And speaking of socks…on a trip around my Blogroll Donna had a link to this Ebayer. Oh my!, the sock yarn was not only priced right (even from Australia) but was too beautiful to miss. I bought the last one in her colorway, shades of red (scroll down to see her Cloverleaf) and another called Cinnamon. You’ll see pics when they arrive from the Land Down Under.
Don't forget about Kersti! How is everyone coming? And check the comments on my Moth Heaven post. There are a few good suggestions.
Have a very knitterly weekend!
You are a very talented woman! Needlepointing, knitting, and who knows what else?! The flying santa will be great! And santa flying explains a few things about how he gets around so easily on that night! :)
I'm giving good vibes to the tuscany! Come to mama! haha!
Posted by: sandy | July 30, 2004 at 04:09 PM
I plan to buy the yarn for Kersti soon. I've been thinking about that Flower Basket shawl since I got the latest isuue of IK.
The Santa is so cute. I learned to do cross stich, crwel embroidery, and needpoint in school when I was eight or nine, but haven't done any in years and probably should take lessons.
Posted by: Vera | July 31, 2004 at 02:33 AM